Chester City legend Graham Barrow has ended his association with Wigan Athletic after eight years at the club.

Barrow, 62, had been interim manager at Wigan towards the end of last season but was unable to halt their relegation into League One and has now left the club, who are set to appoint Portsmouth manager Paul Cook and his assistant Leam Richardson as their new management team.

Barrow is revered as a legend at the Blues owing to his time as a player and a manager at the club.

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He was signed by Harry McNally from Wigan in 1986 and went on to play almost 250 Football League games for the Blues, earning a reputation as a fearless, tough-tackling midfielder in the process.

From the 1988/89 season doubled as assistant to McNally before succeeding him in the final weeks of the 1992/93 season. A year later he guided Chester to the third tier following automatic promotion from Division Three in 1994 . However, he resigned soon afterwards over a lack of backing from Chester’s owners, and rejoined Wigan.

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Managerial spells at Wigan and Rochdale followed before he returned to Chester in 2000 to take over a side who had just been relegated to the Football Conference for the first time in their history.

Despite working under controversial American owner Terry Smith, Barrow lead Chester to a top-half finish in the league, semi-finals of the FA Trophy and third round of the FA Cup before being inexplicably sacked by Smith.

He managed Bury for a brief spell and returned to Chester as assistant manager to Mark Wright in 2006, but the pair were sacked by Stephen Vaughan in April 2007 after a poor run of form.

Graham Barrow at the Deva Stadium (Image: Dave Pearson)

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Following his departure from Wigan, Latics chairman David Sharpe said: “Graham has spent a large part of his professional career with Wigan Athletic over three spells, and has been with us during the highs and lows of the past eight years.

“Graham has been a great servant to the club as a player, a manager and a coach and on behalf of everyone at Wigan Athletic, we wish him all the very best for the future.”